“He needs to be reconsidered in history, pardoned, and declared completely innocent from everything history holds against him. We should celebrate his life,” said Blaine Favel, a former chief of both the Poundmaker Cree Nation and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN).

The petition on change.org is growing in popularity and will soon be translated into multiple languages, according to Favel.

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“We think that if we don’t get a million signatures, I’d be surprised … he’ll probably be the most famous Indigenous leader from Canada and perhaps the world once we’re done our social media campaign,” Favel said.

The campaign organizers plan to deliver the petition to the prime minister, the minister of Crown-Indigenous relations and northern affairs, and the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada.